Kindergarten

Emily had her first day of Kindergarten on Monday. She starts school before 8am so it was a challenge getting everything ready that early, but we all got to walk together to her brand new school. Emily was so excited about school starting. She has been talking about it for weeks and just about bounced the entire walk to school. She was given a brand new backpack from her Grandma Wessel and got to go with Daddy to buy a new lunchpail. She wants to use these for everything.....carrying toys, wearing as a hat, swinging in circles. She loves her school supplies!

Emily has 2 teachers for Kindergarten - they trade off days of the week to teach. It is both of their first years at teaching Kindergarten, but they seem very excited at the task ahead of them. Emily says that she loves them both and that she likes how they say "Good Morning Smarties" each day. She feels special to be called smart!

When she came home that first day we discovered that she made a new friend.....a boy named Daniel who she was hugging and KISSING! Yes, our little Emily proves once again that she is older than her years. David thought we could wait until the teen years to have talks about boys and kissing, but she jumped the gun on that one! But Emily is enjoying making new friends. She gets to see a couple kids from church out on the playground who are in different classes than her, but she enjoys that friendly connection.

Week one is almost done now for Kindergarten and Emily is loving every minute of it. Just seeing all the leopards painted around school is enough to keep her wanting to go back every day, since she loves tigers and leopards and cheetahs -- any of the big cats!

David and I have held up pretty well. We are so proud of Emily and excited (although somewhat nervous) for this new step in her life. The only one having problems with Emily in school seems to be little Megan. She doesn't have as much excitement in her days without her big sister. Luckily they get to spend the afternoon laughing and playing away!

First Foods

Megan had her first taste of food (other than rice cereal). She got to eat Sweet Potatoes and she absolutely loved them. At least she did on the first night. The second night eating sweet potatoes didn't go as smoothly....she made faces and spit it all out. What a funny fickle girl! She has been so desperate to get her hands on all of our food for the past few weeks and now she gets her own dinner. Hopefully she'll enjoy her meals more as time goes on.

Megan got to wash the meal down with a little water aided by Emily.

Our Pool

We bought Emily a pool for the backyard. On the 4th of July we had a blast swimming and splashing in it. Megan takes after her big sister and is a complete water baby! She kicked and splashed as much as Emily did.

Hooray for the pool!

Say Cheese!Kick and splash!The 3 girlsMegan tried to get Emily back for dumping water on her.....

but sadly she wasn't strong enough to lift the cup!

Comparing the Girls

I recently put Megan in Emily's very first Christmas dress. Emily was 4 months old in her picture, whereas Megan is 5 months. But aside from the age.....check out the differences. Emily was skinny and sweet whereas Megan is chubby and a fireball! And that HAIR!

Emily loves her sister and is so excited to see Megan wear all of her old clothes.

5 Months Old

I see her every day and I still can't get over her hair and her toothless grin!

She is such a happy baby!

Megan and Daddy

Little Megan dancing on Daddy's lap It takes a lot of work to get Megan to sleep. It really wears you out!

First Vacation Alone

Emily got the opportunity to travel to Grandma V's house for a vacation without the rest of us. She had the best time and never missed us once. It is over 2 weeks later and she still wishes that she was in Idaho with those kitty cats.

Emily was excited to have her very own plane ticket

Visiting Grandpa Wayne

Meeting ditto

She visited the falls and fed ducks by the river

Wagon rides and playing with cats were her favorite things about Idaho

This horse was just her size